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Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Help


bilrus

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I have been craving biscuits with sausage gravy. I can figure out the biscuits, but can't find anything about how to make the gravy.

Anyone have any ideas or places they can point me?

I thank you in advance. My arteries - not so much.

Bill Russell

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I have been craving biscuits with sausage gravy.  I can figure out the biscuits, but can't find anything about how to make the gravy.

Anyone have any ideas or places they can point me?

I thank you in advance.  My arteries - not so much.

I have a fantastic recipe at home. VERY simple. I cut it out of a magazine, so I'm not sure I can post it here, but if you'd like, I can send it to you via PM.

Sherri A. Jackson
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try this: cook some sausage (out of the casing) creating a good amount of fond. Pour off most of the fat, leaving a few Ts. Add a few teas of flour to make your roux. Cook it, but not too much. Add milk, scraping up the fond. Season heavily with pepper, a little cayenne, salt.

It's probably not authentic, but I like it.

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Jack McDavid, at his Down Home Diner in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, makes the best sausage gravy I've had north or south of the Mason Dixon line. He calls it Rich Man's gravy cause it comes with big chunks of sausage in it. Poor Man's has some sausage drippings but no sausage.

Jack also does a variation which he calls Red Eye gravy. Like Rich Man's but with Mr. Moyer's ham (country style, but not salty country style). Jack concedes it's not really Red Eye gravy but he says Philadelphian won't go near the genuine article. He's made real red eye for me when he gets tired of hearing me complain, so he knows the difference.

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

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Here's a real live recipe: oink.

Stone is a much better candidate for Real Live Southerner than I, obviously. I always imagined a sausage patty on the biscuit.

Apparently, that's not so. It's white sauce made from pan drippings, crumbled sausage added, served (over? in?) a biscuit? Is that the correct visual?

Margaret McArthur

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Two variations on a theme.

First as a side, where one can dunk the biscuit or ladle the gravy over it.

SilverSkillet-HamEggs.jpg

The other as the main course. This is Jack McDavid's version served with sausage patty and baked apple slices on the side.

DownHom-SausageGravy4.jpg

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

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Thanks, Holly.  It does look as I'd imagined it: Kind of grey and gluey and lumpy.

(Not that it's a bad thing, or anything.)

The gray is the lighting or possibly the photographer. The color is greasy off white. More light brownish than gray.

Nor is it gluey. Rather, bechamelish.

The lumpier the better, the lumps coming from sausage meat and not flour.

A very "comforting" breakfast.

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

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It's really just milk gravy made with sausage drippings, with sausage added back in. A little hot sauce is good, too. If you're on the pig cooking brigade, I can make biscuits with sausage gravy Saturday morning. I mean, you should have some pork for every meal, right?

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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Thanks, Holly.  It does look as I'd imagined it: Kind of grey and gluey and lumpy.

(Not that it's a bad thing, or anything.)

I think I'd better warn y'all to be careful here.

This stuff is wonderful, okay. Legions of southerners have been raised on it - either over biscuits or toast - with a couple of fried eggs on the side.

Sure, you think you can just "experiment" with it. You think you can stop anytime you want.

But I'm warning y'all - you'd better be careful. This is a very fattening addiction you're wandering into.

:biggrin:

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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Gravy application is a matter of family tradition, personal preference and occasion. I've seen it poured over biscuits, puddled at the edge of the plate, served in individual side dishes and in a gravy boat. And one friend who ladles a perfectly round pool of gravy on his plate, splits the biscuit horizontally, then carefully twists them, cut-side down, into the sauce. Does biscuits and molasses the same way.

Jack concedes it's not really Red Eye gravy but he says Philadelphian won't go near the genuine article. He's made real red eye for me when he gets tired of hearing me complain, so he knows the difference.

A few months ago, I made red-eye gravy for my life-long Philadelphian sister-in-law. She looked at it. It looked back at her with that one irridescent eye. She looked at the grits, the ham, and the scrambled eggs, then back at the gravy -- it was still staring at her. As far as I know, it was still lookin' when she left the table.

Edited by Dave the Cook (log)

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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Holly had to go and most that picture and get my mouth watering while sitting at my desk.

And the only plce I could go right now to get this is Bob Evans. :raz: I think I'll wait until I get home.

Bill Russell

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But I'm warning y'all - you'd better be careful.  This is a very fattening addiction you're wandering into.

:biggrin:

I know from personal experience. There's a reason I went from 275 to 400 pounds while in college.

The only place you could eat after 9 o'clock in my small college town was the truck stop by the Interstate. Their specialty - you guessed it. The heaviest biscuits and thickest gravy you've ever had.

Oh - and drinking about a case of beer every weekend didn't help.

Bill Russell

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It's white sauce made from pan drippings, crumbled sausage added, served (over? in?) a biscuit?  Is that the correct visual?

Bingo. See the lovely pictures that Holly Moore posted. :wub:

I don't live in the south but there's a diner/cafe here where I live where when you order breakfast and they ask what kind of toast you want with it, one of the options (and the ONLY option, as far as I'm concerned) is biscuits and sausage gravy.

Of course, they don't call it "sausage gravy". They just call it "gravy"...the sausage is naturally assumed to be in there. It'd be wholly unAmerican if it wasn't. The gravy (a true southern milk gravy) is usually off-white, slightly tan colored from the sausage & drippings. The gravy is not thin, either. It should have some body to it. Not thick like a pudding but thick enough to blanket the biscuit like a lucious lava. As Holly said, the lumpier (meaning more sausage crumbles) the better. Add some black pepper and I add some Tabasco and you're in heaven.

Of course, the biscuits (usually a buttermilk/baking powder biscuit) are fresh and hot, just out from the oven. To be truly decadent, you would slather the hot biscuits with butter before ladling the gravy on them.

As you can see by Holly's pictures, biscuits and gravy can be a meal unto themselves. Usually that means 2 to 4 biscuits (depending upon the generosity of the diner). The gravy should arrive in a seperate bowl so you can ladle on as much or as little as you want. I usually use it all. After all, if you're eating biscuits and gravy, you shouldn't do it in a half-assed manner.

Gosh, all of a sudden I'm hungry. :biggrin:

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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blanket the biscuit like a lucious lava...

Brilliant description.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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blanket the biscuit like a lucious lava...

Brilliant description.

Amen... I am late to this thread so I can't add anything. (Other than I know what I am having for breakfast in the morning. Or, maybe... lunch right now?) Hmmm... Which begs the question...

Of the ubiquitous chains, who makes the best? Denney's? Waffle House? Cracker Barrel? I like mine fairly salty, lots of black pepper, and lots of browny bits. The sausage can be in patties on the side or it can be lumps in the gravy like AB's recipe.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Of the ubiquitous chains, who makes the best? Denney's? Waffle House? Cracker Barrel? I like mine fairly salty, lots of black pepper, and lots of browny bits. The sausage can be in patties on the side or it can be lumps in the gravy like AB's recipe.

I'm fond of Bob Evan's.

I like mine on the salty side, with big hunks of sausage, which I like to overcook when I make it at home -- that slight crunch is very satisfying. And I always add extra black pepper, always.

Dang, I wish I could go somewhere to get some of this stuff for lunch today.

Sherri A. Jackson
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try this:  cook some sausage (out of the casing) creating a good amount of fond.  Pour off most of the fat, leaving a few Ts.  Add a few teas of flour to make your roux.  Cook it, but not too much.  Add milk, scraping up the fond.  Season heavily with pepper, a little cayenne, salt.

It's probably not authentic, but I like it.

That is how I do it--I brown a whole pound of breakfast sausage, sprinkle it with a quarter cup or so of flour, brown it a little bit more, pour in enough milk to make a nice thick gravy with lots of sausage. Plenty of pepper and salt, and homemade cat's head biscuits. (So called because they are big--the size of a cat's head.)

Most of the grocery stores here do their own bulk sausage, and there is a wide variety of packaged sausage in the meat case.

Maggie, maggie, maggie--you are missing one of the good things of life. Biscuits, gravy, and a big dollop scrambled eggs--heaven.

sparrowgrass
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Maggie, maggie, maggie--you are missing one of the good things of life.  Biscuits, gravy, and a big dollop scrambled eggs--heaven.

Sad, isn't it?

I have it on good authority that she's never had grits, either. We're gonna fix this when she gets to North Carolina in October.

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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